N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 0 • V o l 25 • N o 10
In This Issue
PAGE
5
UK Property
PAGE
10
Economic Debate
While
13
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Development Hubs
18
PAGE
Breakthrough Boxing
Plus
it would be pessimistic to
decline here is due to a number of factors
Hong Kong’s film wave was by no means
suggest that the financial crisis will become a
that coincided at roughly the same time. It
a purely art-house propulsion. The most
repeat of 1929, one of the few industries that
should be stressed that Hong Kong cinema
obvious and well-remembered genre of this
might benefit from another major downturn
may be down but it certainly isn’t out.
time is the multitude of martial arts movies.
is the entertainment sector. Hollywood’s
Though western audiences still tend to
golden years came in the Great Depression,
Nevertheless, it is widely recognised that
categorise vintage Hong Kong martial arts
a time when struggling families came to rely
Hong Kong’s art-world has genuinely suffered
films as some sort of artworks, by and
more heavily on cinema to take them away
from the city’s increased prosperity. High
large they were very cheaply produced and
from their troubles. This relatively new form of
living and business costs have simply edged
had story lines to match. This and other
entertainment was inexpensive, tremendously
out many committed artists, musicians,
genres catered to a mass audience in the
arresting, and it gave audiences a spectacle
writers, film makers and others. While sixties
best tradition of Hollywood – appealing to
of the glamorous lifestyle which they craved.
and seventies Kowloon may have been an
the lowest common denominator. A large
overcrowded, underprivileged hotbed of
part of Hong Kong cinema’s commercial
This sometimes inverse relationship between
discontent, it also saw the germination of a
success came from audiences outside the
the success of film industry and of the wider
local, even international, culture wave. Those
city; in Taiwan, Singapore and eventually,
economy is particularly apparent in the case
conditions closely resemble Elizabethan
a f t e r i t s 1 9 8 0 s o p e n i n g - u p p o l i c y, i n
of Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s film industry,
London, late 19th century Paris, and 20th
mainland China too. It took some time for
in full flower during the 1970s and 1980s,
century New York. Indeed, most of the films
the mainland film industry to rediscover
began to decline during the 1990s, exactly
of Wong Kar Wai, Hong Kong’s preeminent
commercial strength and, during the 1980s
as Hong Kong’s economy took off in earnest.
film director, hark back to the ‘golden age’ of
especially, Hong Kong cinema had the run
This is not perversity; the film industry’s
1960s and ‘70s Hong Kong.
of the mainland market.
• Environment • News • Events
(Continued on page 2)
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